


Oblation

by storiesbeyondthestars



Series: Bad Things Happen Bingo [7]
Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Bad Things Happen Bingo, Chapter One Beta Read, Chapter Two NOT Beta Read, Dark Lance?, Gaslighting, M/M, Part two warnings: mental manipluation, Suicide Attempt, a character is sacrificed here, also one slightly gory scene that does not have to do with the suicide attempt, bit of a modern au too, prompt: used in a ritual/sacrifice
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-09-04
Updated: 2018-09-19
Packaged: 2019-07-06 17:39:30
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 13,021
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15890859
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/storiesbeyondthestars/pseuds/storiesbeyondthestars
Summary: It was a small and simple community, the kind shown on Christmas cards in winter when the snow fell and there were light and decorations strewn everywhere. It was the kind of place where everyone knew everyone else. It was a safe and happy place.Except for when the Circle opened.





	1. Oblation

**Author's Note:**

> On tumblr, thousand-springs requested **used in a ritual/sacrifice with Keith**.

There was a nervousness that lingered over the town. One that had everyone jumping at the slightest provocation.

It was a small and simple community. The kind on Christmas cards in winter when the snow fell, light and decorations strewn about. It was the kind of place where everyone knew everyone else.

It was the kind of place that was normally filled with festive Halloween decorations. But not that year. Things were set up to keep the small children distracted from the events that were soon to come. It wasn’t like every other year though.

The town only got like this once every twenty years, where the dread became palpable.

“Shit.” Keith looked up towards Shiro, who put his finger in his mouth to stop the blood flow from where his hand slipped.

The young man narrowed his eyes at his brother and said, “Careful, or you’re going to end up losing a finger.”

Shiro wasn’t actually Keith’s brother. He took him in at a young age, after Keith’s mother vanished, and his father died in a fire. No one had quite known what to do with the young boy, and he bounced around from place to place. Child Protective Services never officially involved.

No one welcomed outside things like that in their town.

That was until Keith stole Shiro’s car when he was 12 and Shiro was 19. For whatever reason, that prompted Shiro to take him into his home. Shiro’s then-boyfriend, now-husband, had been a bit taken back, but Adam got used to it.

Keith owed Shiro everything, so he wasn’t going to let the man cut his own finger off.

“I’d lose my whole arm if we could put this off for another five years,” Shiro replied. He tried (and failed) not to let his bitterness show through.

The younger of the two regarded him carefully. Shiro worked as the local mechanic, so that was what Keith ended up doing. There weren’t many options for people who wanted to stay there, and getting out was hard.

To an outsider, Shiro’s words didn’t make much sense, but Keith knew. Of course he did.

“It’ll be okay,” Keith assured him, forcing a smile onto his face.

“You can’t promise that, Keith,” he shot back, narrowing his grey eyes at him. “You know as much as I do that there’s a possibility they could choose you.”

Of course Keith knew. How could he not? Everyone his age was worried about what was to come.

Their town wasn’t exactly normal. There was a reason why they didn’t embrace outsiders.

Their town had a demon.

Yes, a demon.

In the middle of the town square was a strangely decorated circle. They could brush it aside as simple landscaping and décor, but that wasn't the case. People tried for years to break it open, to excavate around it to see if they could get at whatever was inside. No one was able to. They knew for a fact that there was some kind of cavern underneath the Circle. There was a long, vertical drop down to that cavern, but when they looked for it, it was like it wasn’t there.

They all believed in magic. How could they not after something like that?

Once every twenty years, the stone circle slid open. It unleashed terrifying snarls and stenches. Stories said that a monstrous demon lived within it. The town was originally erected around the Circle to appease its appetite. They said it was so the demon wouldn't escape and unleash chaos upon the world. In return for taking up this task, they were given the most beautiful freshwater springs, and gardens that were always bountiful .

It struck Keith as a very pagan thing, but the demon was apparently very real. Everyone swore by it, whispering that the sounds it made were horrifying. That it brought a feeling of dread. On Halloween, a single townsperson would be sacrificed to the demon to appease it.

No one quite knew what happened to the person that was given to the demon. The Sacrifice was always revered and remembered by the townspeople. Pictures of them hung in city hall, labelled as heroes. The older people toted it as a brave and noble sacrifice.

They would though, they were safe. For whatever reason, the Sacrifices were always around the 18 to 22 year range. Some muttered that it would be easier to not have children whose ages matched the Circle's opening. That would mean the demon would escape and destroy everything.

Keith was a little bit of a skeptic, but that was because he wasn’t around the last time the Circle had opened. In fact, the last time it opened was the day that he was born, something that a few people noted.

That not only put him perfectly in the age group to be chosen as the Sacrifice, but it drew more attention to him as well. There was no exact date when the Circle opened. Sometimes it was an entire month before Halloween, sometimes it was only a day or two. To be born on the day it opened was a hell of a coincidence.

So Keith could understand why Shiro was nervous. His brother had been his guardian, his best friend for the past eight years. Now Keith was a candidate to be sacrificed to the demon, and had been born on the date the Circle had opened last time.

“It’ll be okay,” Keith assured him again. There was a small bit of relief that Shiro was well out of the age range for a sacrifice. He was sure that Shiro would disagree. He’d try to take Keith’s place without question.

That thought unsettled Keith. That was why, the night before his 20th birthday, he went to Adam, Shiro’s husband.

One would think that a small town would be judgemental of same sex marriage, but most people were okay with it. It had been a small blessing that let Keith not completely hate his home. The outside world was a lot crueler, or so people said.

“Adam,” Keith said to him. “Can I ask you a favour?”

“Sure Keith.” Adam looked up from his book, staring at him quizzically. “What can I do for you?”

“It’s Shiro.” He bit his lip. “I’m worried he’s going to do something…stupid.” Stupid, as in completely reckless. Something like try to smuggle Keith out of the town until the demon chose someone else. People tried that before, and whoever was doing it would be severely punished. Keith didn’t want that to happen to Shiro. It was pretty much impossible to leave anyway.

Adam frowned and said, “I worry about that too. He’s scared for you.”

“Promise me that whatever happens you’ll stop him?” Keith asked, staring at him with pleading eyes.

Placing a hand on his shoulder, Adam nodded his head. “Of course I will. You never have to worry about that.”

That night, Keith had the strangest dream. He was in a brightly lit room, on a massive canopy bed. There were silks and shimmering fabrics that almost felt like cool liquid in his hands.

He looked up, meeting a pair of glowing blue eyes. Instinctual fear clawed at him, and something in him screamed that this was very wrong. Still, he couldn’t look away from those eyes, even as the rest of the world around them seemed to fade. He couldn’t even see the features of who or whatever it was, only the eyes.

It leaned close to him, and he saw a glint of razor sharp teeth before everything went black.

When Keith awoke from his dream, he had a strange pebble in his hand. It was impossibly smooth, and was a sparkling blue. It was beautiful, but for whatever reason, the sight of it made him want to throw up.

The circle opened in the early morning hours on Keith's 20th birthday. The sky was still dark at the time, and almost everyone was asleep. The only ones that knew were those chosen to stand guard over it every night.

Shiro was shaking and tense during the little party they had, where he bought a cake and gave him a present. It wasn’t much, they didn’t exactly have a lot of money to spare, but Keith appreciated the notebook and pencils. He liked to draw, but was never one to add colour to his things, preferring to sketch. He found it therapeutic for the anger that always simmered under the surface of his skin.

That night, he overheard Adam and Shiro arguing. He didn't mean to. He was trying to sneak out to see if there was any wildlife around to sketch, and they weren’t exactly being quiet. Normally, he wouldn't need to sneak out, he could come and go as he pleased, but this was different. There were strict curfews during the Ritual.

“Shiro,” Adam spoke, trying to sound soothing, but also a bit annoyed. “Calm down. We don’t know—“

“I’ve gone through the records since we started keeping them!” Shiro stressed. “The Circle has never opened on the same day twice. Not like this. And Keith’s birthday? It’s not a coincidence.”

“It could be,” Adam pointed out.

“It’s not, and we both know it,” Shiro said, sounding so defeated. “If we could take him and go…”

“They won’t allow that, you know that.”

“I can’t lose him, Adam. I can’t. He’s my brother. Almost like son to me.”

“I know, Shiro. I know.”

Keith didn’t go out to sketch that night, a heavy weight in his stomach at the way Shiro’s voice wavered.

That night, he saw the blue eyes and the glinting teeth again. He woke up with a strange silken bracelet around his wrist.

It was the day after Keith’s birthday when they announced that the selection would be the next day. They wanted to hurry and find the one that would hold the honour of being the Sacrifice. The risk of parents and guardians trying to take the candidates away was a real one. They didn’t want everyone to worry so much.

“Keith,” Shiro said to him. “What do you think about hiking for a bit?”

He stared at his brother, knowing exactly what he was doing. The silk bracelet beneath the long sleeve of his jacket almost seemed to burn into his skin. The weight of the stone in his pocket kept him in place.

“I don’t want you to get hurt,” Keith answered, trying to hide the waiver of his voice.

“Some time in prison would be worth it,” he insisted.

Except, that wasn’t what Keith meant at all. A part of him knew. He knew what was going to happen. He wasn’t worried about Shiro getting arrested. Not really.

He worried something worse was happening to him.

“It’ll be okay, Shiro,” Keith answered him. “You’ll see.”

Oddly enough, he almost felt like it wasn’t him talking.

That night, the blue eyes were back, watching him as if gazing into his very soul. He still couldn’t see anything else, only the eyes that moved around his prone form. He couldn’t even move properly as it seemed to stalk him, trying to see him from all angles. It shifted closer this time, causing Keith to shudder. It felt like skin, but it was so cold.

“No,” he managed to choke out as the eyes inched closer, looming over him. “Please.” He wanted to fight, but he couldn’t move.

“It’ll be okay.” Its voice sent a shiver down his spine. “You’ll see.”

Keith closed his eyes, and then cried out when a rush of sharp pain lanced across his shoulder and down his arm.

He awoke abruptly, sitting up and panting. Sweat rolled down from his hairline, and his shoulder ached horribly .

He got out of bed and stumbled towards the bathroom. Grimacing at the bright light, he looked at himself in the mirror. Eyebrows quirked up when he noticed how red his skin was at the edge of the collar of his shirt. Keith pulled it aside a bit, and his stomach dropped. He tugged the shirt off, and stared in horror at his reflection.

There was a bite mark that looked almost human, but was bigger, and made with sharp and pointed teeth.

He wheeled around,  throwing himself at the toilet as he threw up.

Later that day, everyone who was 18 to 22 was gathered together. It wasn’t lost on Keith that everyone corralling them was armed. It made him wish that he had taken Shiro up on his offer to ‘go hiking’, because he couldn’t shake off the feeling of dread.

Everyone around him seemed just as terrified, or was trying to be brave. He knew though that they had nothing to worry about.

Keith wondered if it was always like this. If the one chosen knew beforehand. Just in case it was a fluke, and he was fine, he wore a thick hoodie so that no one would see the mark.

For some reason though, he kept that stupid bracelet around his wrist, and that stone in his pocket. He didn’t know why. He felt like he couldn’t get rid of it. That something very bad would happen if he did.

They held the selection in what looked an old, partially dilapidated house. Keith wasn’t quite sure why they held it there, but as far as he knew, it had always been like that. It was an easy place to keep them all inside so no one would run.

They were all ushered inside, the door closed behind them. They were all put into a circle, a man in black robes in the middle of the room. He was a tall, bald man with strange, flowing robes and odd markings across his face. He was said to be a holy man who had no real title and no alignment to any religion. But he knew all about the demon, allowing it to use him to choose its sacrifice.

Keith couldn’t help but wonder if the demon was fucking with them. It could probably steal someone in their sleep, but he supposed that there was something significant about the Ritual. Something that appeased it or made it feel important.

“Welcome,” the man spoke up. “I am Macidus. You are all strong, brave men and women and are fortunate enough to be candidates for the Sacrifice. I know it may appear frightening, but do not despair. If chosen, you will be saving the lives of everyone else. Of the world. It is an honour, and you will forever be remembered for it.”

The girl beside Keith sniffled, tears falling down her pale cheeks. A part of him wanted to comfort her, but he said nothing, trying to keep a straight face.

Macidus started chanting something for the center of the Circle that they created. He looked a little ridiculous at first. Then the air around them started to cool until it became downright unbearably chilly.

The man was facing away from Keith, and he didn’t see any movement, but a couple of the people he was facing gasped in shock. Macidus moved from person to person, placing his hands on this shoulders and staring at them. It was only when he got closer to Keith that he realized what was freaking everyone else out so much.

Macidus’ normal dark brown eyes were a bright, almost glowing blue. Keith almost left like he was going to throw up as the man got closer and closer to him.

Finally, he put his hands on Keith’s shoulders. He was unable to hide his grimace as the man put pressure on the bite mark. Those eyes, in such a sickening familiar shade of blue, stared at him with a harsh intensity.

Keith’s fingers curled into fists as the holy man stayed staring at him longer than the others. He could see looks of terror and relief starting to appear on the faces of the others. They all knew what was happening.

“This one.” His voice made Keith shudder. It wasn’t Macidus’ voice, it sounded like the one he heard whispering into his ear in his nightmares. Almost immediately, two tall men appeared. They grabbed Keith’s arms and tugged him away from the others.

No one else looked at Keith, keeping their eyes averted. They were put into two lines to leave, Keith being at the back and held by the two men so that he wouldn’t run.

Then they started moving, and Keith felt like he was going to be sick as they paraded around. Macidus pronouncing the choice of the Sacrifice.

Keith heard Shiro yell his name, heard him yelling to others. He didn’t dare look over at him. He couldn’t. If he did, he would break down, and he was trying to keep a straight face in front of everyone. He didn’t want to see their pity. He didn’t want to see their relief that their own children were safe.

He mentally prayed that Adam kept Shiro safe.

Keith knew the stories. People whispered them over and over again. They thought that the demon consumed the Sacrifice. Gender never seemed to matter, nor did it demand someone who was pure. There was no rhyme or reason to its choices beyond the specific age range. It must be food then.

There was something odd about knowing that you were going to die in a couple days.

They kept him away from everyone else. They kept him locked in a beautiful room with no windows and no sharp objects. Keith could probably figure out a way to off himself if he really wanted to.

He kept thinking of Shiro though. If he didn’t let this happen, would whatever it is lash out and hurt Shiro or Adam? His life wasn’t worth the life of every other person in that town.

Blue eyes haunted his dreams every night, but they weren’t as close or aggressive as before. They were waiting farther way, content to simply watch him.

“What are you going to do to me?” Keith managed to ask during one dream. He almost wished that he only had to wait a day for this, not almost a week. He didn’t know where his fight instincts went, but he always felt so tired.

The demon said nothing, and he woke up.

This happened again and again, night after night. His days were nothing more than waiting.

On the night of the 30th, Macidus himself came into the room. “Tomorrow, we will do the cleansing before the ritual. We will give you a bag with items to take with you to the next life. Is there anything you request?”

“Do I get to see my brother first?” Keith asked, feeling almost drained from being stuck in a room with nothing to do for about a week. They gave him things to read that were all these strange prayers, but that was about it.

“To get you used to a world without all these distractions.”

Right, cause he was going to get used to living without the internet when he was dead. Maybe they felt better leading someone who was going a little crazy to his or her death.

“You may,” Macidus agreed.

Shiro and Adam were both brought to him later. Shiro wrapped him in a tight hug, burying his face into his hair, shaking as he held him.

“You’ll be okay,” Keith got out as he returned the hug, burying his face into the crook of Shiro’s neck. “Don’t…do anything stupid. Okay? Keep your business, or take Adam and move away. Adopt a kid or whatever. You’ll be a good parent, trust me on that.” Keith blinked his eyes, not wanting to cry.

Shiro's breath heaved. “We should have run.”

“It’s not your fault.” Keith looked up as Adam put his hand on his head, the man smiling sadly at him, eyes misty.

“Promise me you’ll take care of each other? Don’t do anything stupid?” Slowly , Shiro nodded his head.

“We will,” Adam agreed.

“You’re my brother, Shiro,” Keith muttered to him. “I love you.”

“I love you too, Keith.” Shiro squeezed him so tight he was sure he heard something crack. “If I could bust you out of here right now, I would.”

“I know you would.”

He wished that they would. Keith felt docile, and realized that his captors might have been doing something to him. With magic or mild drugs, he didn’t know.

It wasn’t meant to happen though. Shiro and Adam were soon escorted out of the room.

“Your brother left you some things to take with you,” Macidus said to him. “We will place them with your bag.”

The blue eyes were in his dreams again that night, except them actually seemed to be in a body. He couldn’t see what they looked like, but they seemed almost humanoid. They were still hidden by shadows though, eyes aside.

“Don’t be afraid,” a voice whispered to him. “Everything will be okay soon. You’ll see.”

He wasn’t sure he trusted the thing that was going to be killing and consuming him in the next 24 hours.

Morning came much quicker than he would have liked. It was strange how it didn’t feel any different. It was like any other day. He supposed that it was true to most people in the world. There was nothing special about that day, and time would tick on without him.

Hopefully , thanks to his sacrifice, the people that he grew up with would be safe for 20 more years.

They allowed him a big, hearty breakfast of whatever he wanted. Then they went through the satchel he would take with him. His notebook, pencils, pictures of his family, the knife that his mother had left a long time ago, and a few other things were in there. The silken bracelet was still around his wrist, the stone placed into the bag. Things that were sentimental or important.

It was nice to know that those things were with him.

Then he went through what they called ‘the cleansing’, where they cleaned every nook and cranny of him. He supposed that they didn’t want to give the demon a dirty meal. He hoped he gave it indigestion for the next 20 years.

Keith mused on his food, given his last choice for a final meal. Of course he chose food from the diner downtown. He had always loved that place more than any other place.

It was only when he put on pure white clothing that the nausea started to well up within him. They were plain and comfortable, a simple pair of pants and a long-sleeved shirt. He looked so worn and washed out in the mirror.

The children went trick-or-treating earlier that night. Once the sky was dark and they were safely inside, they brought Keith out of his luxurious prison. They paraded him through the town, towards the Circle.

Of course, it wasn’t just the Circle anymore. There was a pulley-system set up beside it, a wooden platform with cuffs on it. Of course they weren’t going to throw him in. It wasn’t nearly theatrical enough.

Fear and anger rose up within Keith as he tried to back away, but they pushed him forward. Everyone was wearing masks, as if that absolved them from what was happening. Anyone could have stopped it, but no one made any move to try.

The fight finally came back to Keith. He struggled with his captor as they pushed him forward, binding his wrists and ankles to the board. His stomach lurched as it lifted him into the air, hovering over the pitch black pit below. A growl echoed from it, and Keith looked away at the crowd.

God, he hoped Shiro wasn't there.

Macidus started talking about noble sacrifices, honour, and things like that. Keith didn’t give two shits about what he was saying. He wanted to go home.

He blinked his eyes rapidly to hide the fact that they were watering. When Macidus asked if there was anything he wanted to say, Keith sent him a vicious glare.

“I hope you rot in hell,” Keith snarled at the man, unable to hide his anger. There was some shuffling and gasps, and he looked up in time to see Shiro trying to make his way through the crowd.

Keith almost called out to him, but it was too late. The platform was  lowered down into the darkness. It seemed to go on forever, and it was like all the sound from above was first muffled, and then completely gone.

He couldn’t help but be bitter towards the people who would go on with their lives the next day like nothing happened. No one outside of their own would ever know. He’d become another name in the town’s best kept secret.

The more he descended, the more tired he became, eventually closing his eyes

Then he heard something, a shifting in the darkness that had his head jerking up, eyes snapping open. He inhaled sharply when vibrant blue eyes glowed from the darkness.

“Don’t worry,” a voice said, one that was neither creepily deep or eerily high. What felt like a hand pressed against his cheek, stroking it almost soothingly . “You’re here with me now. I’ve been waiting for you.” Something broke the shackles binding him to the platform. Keith fell forward, feeling something hold him up under his legs and back. It felt almost human. “Is that what you want? To punish those people? You kept your gifts I gave you. I can give you another if you want it. I can give you everything.”

He thought of Shiro, of those innocent children and people. No, he didn’t want them hurt. The other ones though…

The platform rose back up and out of the Circle above them. Though Keith still couldn’t see anything properly , he was still able to make out those glowing blue eyes and sharp teeth. They glinted off of the limited light as lips stretched into a wide grin.

The Circle sealed itself again, and everything went black.


	2. Distortion

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Keith was fairly certain that he knew what the demon wanted from him, but as long as he kept his wits about him, he'd be fine in the end, right?
> 
> Note: This gets really, weird at times.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Warning: this entire thing plays around a little bit with psychological horror, even if you don't see it at first. Characters will be OOC at times. Also, there is a suicide attempt, but the scene cuts away before anything can actually happen. You'll know the scene when you get to it if you want to skip it.
> 
> A surprising amount of people asked for more of this universe, so here you go!

Time was a very strange concept. Keith had never particularly been interested in physics or the study of the universe in that sense, but he knew that, when you broke it down, it was strange. It existed, things grew, got older, changed, day and night happened, yet it was also a totally arbitrary concept created by humans. He used to wonder if other intelligence species thought of time in the same way, or as another concept all together.

Maybe he had part of that answer now, because he couldn’t remember when time last seemed to move. Yes, he slept and woke up, but there were no clocks, or anything like that. It was like, despite functioning normally, time ceased to move.

That’s why he wasn’t sure how long he had been…wherever he was.

Movement beside him, and not an alarm, was what roused Keith from his sleep. His eyes fluttered slightly, staring across a large room, decorated with crystalline trinkets that sent coloured light across the room. There was a canopy that hung over the impossibly comfortable bed that had been pulled back. He wasn’t a fan of it being closed. He felt far too confined and trapped.

A shadow stretched across the wall, and Keith’s eyes traced the shape of the bat-like wings, and horns. He twitched a bit when he felt the brush of a scaly tail against his bare leg. He knew that if he looked behind him though, he wouldn’t see any of that.

The shadow settled as a hand with impossibly soft skin rested on his bare shoulder, sliding down his arm as the figure shifted closer. “I know you’re awake.”

Keith wet his lips slightly, fingers twisting into the silken fabric that probably cost more than anything else he had ever owned in his life. Since coming here though, he’d been nothing but spoiled.

That was why he was always waiting for the other shoe to drop. Why he was so cautious. He had been given to a _demon_ as a sacrifice, so he had to want _something_ from him.

Well, Keith was _fairly_ certain that he knew _what_ the demon wanted from him, he just didn’t understand why. He also didn’t particularly understand why he didn’t just…take it. Not that Keith was going to complain at all, he just didn’t understand. He was helpless there.

The bag that had been packed for him before he was sacrificed was still there, well within reach. The demon hadn’t even tried to take it from him. This meant that he still had his mother’s decorative knife that she had left him. So he did have access to a weapon that he could use and was familiar with.

That didn’t change the fact that the demon had horns, wings, a long tail and more. Keith doubted that he’d stand a chance against him. So there was really no reason that the demon _hadn’t_ taken what he wanted yet. The _only_ thing he insisted was that Keith sleep at his side every night.

At first, Keith had been almost sick with nervousness, sure that the creature was going to attack him, but the attack never came. He literally just wanted to sleep with him nearby. He just seemed to want to be _around_ Keith. It was really weird.

Maybe part of it came from the fact that Keith wasn’t sure the demon was, well, a demon. He knew the popular depictions of demons, and the one that had taken him didn’t really fit. Sure, some people said that they had bat-like wings and horns, but if Keith was honest, the shadows he saw and the feel of the tail often led him to thinking of a dragon more. Then again, who were people to decide what they actually looked like?

“Keith?”

 Hearing his name, Keith finally shifted, looking back over his shoulder. He braced himself every morning to see some kind of grotesque creature looming over him, but he never did. He was met with a sight that was slowly becoming familiar.

The demon looked entirely human, with warm, pale brown skin, dark blue eyes, and short, dark brown hair. He was slim and not overbearing, only slightly taller than Keith. He smiled brilliantly at Keith, the warm light practically glinting off of his smooth, pure white teeth that were not at all like the sharp ones Keith had seen before.

His smile was bright, happy, and not at all menacing. Still, Keith felt a little bit uncomfortable. He had seen the shadows, the teeth, the glowing eyes, and had felt the scales. This person wasn’t at all human. It made him wonder if the image he projected was there to appeal to Keith.

He kind of hated that it was working.

“What do you want me with?” Keith asked, as he did every morning since he had been lowered into a seemingly endless tunnel that went down into the ground, by the people he had grown up with.

He could still see Shiro trying to rush forward to save him. Could still hear his brother’s cry of his name. He really missed him.

The demon, as he did every morning, looked amused by the question. His blue eyes, not bright like the sky or the tropical seas, but more like the vast, open expanse of the ocean, met Keith’s own. Every day, he said something completely different in response to the question.

The first day, Keith had directly asked if he was going to eat him, to which the demon had laughed loudly. Not in a chilling, menacing way, but with pure amusement.

“You’re _definitely_ a full course meal,” he replied with a slight flutter of his eyelashes. “But no. Of course not. I’m _never_ going to hurt you.”

Most of the time, whatever he said turned into some kind of silly, flirtatious line, but Keith always asked, hoping for a real answer. This demon had chosen _him_. There had to be a reason for it.

“Haven’t you figured it out yet?” he asked, surprising Keith by leaning in closer to him so that their faces were so close that their noses were brushing against one another gently. “I’m going to make you fall in love with me.”

That…was actually kind of creepy. It was also the most forward that Lance had been, which was a bit surprising.

Keith made a face and slid sideways to move away from him and get up.

“How are you going to do that?” he asked as he straightened the tank top he had worn to bed, going over to the dresser where there were clothes that were absolutely to his taste, but made with nicer material than he could ever dream to afford. He started looking through the drawers to figure out what he wanted to wear, never having had this wide a selection in his life.

He wondered if anyone figured out that he tended to wear all black, because it was harder to see when that was dirty over other colours, because sometimes you needed clothes and had no time to wash them.

He thought about his own question as he pulled out a plain, dark shirt that, on closer inspection, actually seemed to be a dark violet. “Let me guess, keep me locked up with only you to talk to. Right, Lance?”

Finding out the demon’s name had been a strange experience. He expected some strange name that would cause him to stumble over the sounds, but no, it was just Lance, as far as he knew. It was probably a nickname, but the demon, or not-demon, or human-dragon or whatever he was, didn’t tell him otherwise.

(Keith really hoped that some half-human, half-animal thing wasn’t trying to seduce him, because he really wasn’t in to that in the slightest, and it made him super uncomfortable to even think about. He’d take a full-on demon over that.)

Lance got out of the bed, a frown marring his features as he walked closer to him, only wearing silky pyjama pants. “Of course not.  You’re not a prisoner here, Keith. You can go whatever you want.”

“Just as long as it’s inside.” Keith’s eyes flickered towards the window, where he could see a sky and a forest, and some mountains in the distance, but had no idea where they actually were. Sometimes, he saw things glowing and moving in the distance, and sometimes the colour of the sky didn’t look quite right. He had been lowered into a cavern that magically vanished once the Circle was closed, it wouldn’t surprise him if they were teleported somewhere else, or if everything outside was an illusion.

Lance followed his gaze for a moment and crossed his arms in front of him. “I know you don’t understand, but _that’s_ not permanent. Just for now. Just until it’s safe.” He reached out towards Keith’s face, but the human found himself jerking back.

Lance quickly pulled his hand back with a frown. “I’ll leave you alone for now.” He left the room, not bothering to get changed. That didn’t matter, he’d show up later on in pristine clothing, practically sparkling with his perfect skin and soft hair.

All Keith did was watch him leave.

…

Keith dreams about glowing blue eyes hovering over him and so, so much pain. He wakes up with a gasp, but is unable to move, a strong arm around his waist, the heavy weight of a tail over his legs.

…

He didn’t quite know what to do with Lance, if he honest. When he was being strapped down onto that panel of wood to be lowered into the cavern beyond the Circle, he had struggled and fought. When he was actually lowered into the tunnel, he had known that he was going to die. He just hoped that it wouldn’t be painful.

Surviving beyond that hadn’t even been an option, and now Keith didn’t know what to do with himself or the demon that he was living with. It wasn’t like he accepted his death and then got another run at life. No, that life had ended in that moment like expected, even if he hadn’t literally died. Now he was somewhere else with nothing to actually do but talk to the one who brought him here.

Lance came across as a loudmouth, obnoxious flirt at times, but he also never tried to force himself on Keith, even though he easily could have, so there was that. Sometimes he was just a little _much_ though.

Back home, there had _always_ been a stigma following him. Everyone in that little town had been superstitious for very good reasons, since what they feared was absolutely real. The thing is though, he was born on the day the Circle opened exactly 20 years prior. He might as well have been a cursed child.

He’s heard the whispers. His mother had struggled and toiled with her pregnancy with him. He had very nearly killed her when he was delivered. She stayed until he could be fed solid foods, and then she left, cleaning her hands of him.

His father had told him time and time again to ignore that. That his mother had loved him dearly, but she _had_ to leave. That he wasn’t a cursed child, but an ordinary one like anyone else. Keith never had found out why his mother left by the time his father passed away.

Though everyone else that could have been chosen as the Sacrifice had been afraid, Keith had known that more than a few people thought that it would be him.

They were probably so smug.

Due to that stigma, and the fact that the thought of getting close to people made him really uncomfortable, he had largely grown up without friends outside of Shiro and Adam.

He never _had_ someone treat him like Lance did, and he didn’t know what to make of it. He had never had someone look at him like he hung the moon in the sky. Of course, Keith knew that Lance could hide things, could make himself look like something he wasn’t. He was probably a fantastic actor.

“This could just be an act,” Keith mumbled to himself one day. “He might do this to everyone that he takes.” If Lance was some kind of immortal creature that wanted someone to be with, taking a new person every 20 years made sense, especially considering that the ages of those sacrificed were between 18 and 22. Older and younger would never be chosen. 20 years would have the person turning anywhere from 38 to 42. Just out of their ‘prime’. What he did with them after that, Keith had no idea.

Keith’s stomach twisted. It kind of made sense. He had yet to see anyone else around to tell him otherwise.

It wasn’t even that he was locked up. In fact, he was allowed to go anywhere in the mansion that he wanted. The first morning he woke up, he expected to be given a list of rules, and to be restricted on where he could and couldn’t go to.

“Are you kidding me?” Lance snorted, eyes flashing with amusement. “No, you can go anywhere you want. No doors are closed to you. This is no _Beauty and the Beast_ situation where there’s a whole wing that if you sneak in there, I’ll go batshit crazy on you.”

Apparently demons knew about literature and pop culture. That was something.

Keith walked down the long hallways, exploring to see what he could find that day. It looked more like a massive mansion than some kind of creepy castle. Of course, it was still _kind_ of creepy, since there was no one else there.

That was another thing that tipped off Keith that something was very, very wrong.  Someone had to be cooking the food that they ate, had to be cleaning everything, since it everything always looked so polished and clean. Magic could probably do those things easily enough, but Keith didn’t think so.

This place was definitely magic though. He was positive that the hallways changed, because he always found something new. He found libraries, game rooms, all different kinds of gyms, a pool, and so much more. Usually, he found these places when he was bored and wanted something to do. He was starting to wonder if he actually had to wander anywhere, or if what he wanted would just appear.

One time, he had even gone looking for the kitchens during the day, but unless he was hungry, he rarely ever found them. The occasional time he had, they were empty, devoid of life, but it _smelled_ like something had been made their recently.

Keith’s life was _weird_. He had been sacrificed to a demon that didn’t seem like what demons were supposed to be like, that wanted him to fall in love with him. What the ever living fuck?

That day, while Keith was wondering around, he had come across something new and completely different. There was a set of glass doors in front of him that seemed to go outside.

With shaking hands, Keith slowly pushed the door open, instantly taking in a wonderful breath of fresh air. He used to spend a lot of time outside, and kind of forgot just how much he missed it.

It was a large, garden courtyard. It was surrounded on all sides by the light, stone walls of the mansion, but someone, it didn’t feel confining. Maybe because of the large fountain in the middle of it, maybe it was because of the large trees and the different kinds of plants everywhere. It was beautiful though.

Keith walked forward, his footsteps echoing through the air as he approached the fountain, the sound of water splashing down instantly soothing him. The more he looked at it though, the more he realized there were strange symbols engraved in on it. He had never seen anything like it before, but at the same time, it looked _so_ familiar.

He sat down on the edge of the fountain, brushing his fingers through the clear water. It didn’t even feel like the water he was used to back home. Everything here felt just a little bit off. Maybe it was just because he’s never been around luxurious things before.

Maybe it was because everything here was catered to appeal to him.

Suddenly, this courtyard didn’t seem so nice anymore.

…

Keith dreams about the courtyard, kneeling in the grass and taking in the fresh air. His shadow spills across the ground, but it’s strange and wrong, because it looks like there are feathered wings.

…

Before he had been chosen as the Sacrifice, Keith had known that he was going to be. Lance had come to him in his dreams and have given him two gifts. One was a shining blue stone that sparkled in every colour in the light, and the other was a silken, blue bracelet that he hadn’t been able to remove.

The first morning he woke up in the mansion, after he had questioned Lance if he was going to eat him, Keith realized that both things were gone. Instead there was a necklace around his neck made with the same fabric, the stone hanging from the end of it.

It was comfortable, loose enough to not be restricting or to choking him, and it looked really nice on too. The sight of it had made Keith’s heart pound in his chest, and not in a good way. His brushed his fingers over it, and though it wasn’t tight around his neck, all he could picture was a collar.

A collar, because Lance owned him now, whether he admitted that or not.

No matter how much Lance said that he was free, that he could make his own choices, Keith knew that it was all just an illusion.

His heart screamed for his brother, for Adam. He wanted a familiar face that wasn’t just _Lance_. Someone else to talk to.

Keith was stubborn, but he already knew how this was going to end. Lance was going to end up getting exactly what he wanted. It’s what happened to people in situations similar to his.

“Did you have a good day?” Lance asked later, running his fingers along the necklace (collar, it was a collar, just like what a pet wore).

Anger flared up within Keith, and he pushed Lance away. For a moment, he swore he saw a flash of yellow in his eyes. “Have I gone crazy enough to bend over and give you what you want yet? No.”

“Keith.” He frowned. “That’s not what I want at all.”

“Bullshit.” He fingers twisted around the collar. “I know what you are, and I don’t know why you’re acting all nice. I know about the wings, the horns, the scales. I know _this_ ,” he motioned to Lance, “isn’t you. So why don’t you just _take_ what you want from me?”

A startled gasp escaped Keith’s lips as he was suddenly _lifted_ and slammed into the wall with frightening ease. A twinge of discomfort went across his shoulder blades, but a hand was cradling the back of his head so he didn’t hit it.

A frightened thrill went through him. Keith was on the skinnier side, but he did have some muscle to him, so he wasn’t exactly light. Yet, Lance was holding him up with a single arm around his waist.

“Is this what you want?” Lance asked, his voice deeply seriously like nothing Keith had ever heard from him before. He pressed close, grabbing Keith’s wrists and pinning them to the wall, keeping him up with only that and their bodies pressed together.

“No,” Keith choked out. He felt something smooth and almost leathery gently brush against his cheek. He recoiled from it as much as he could when he realized what it was.

“Huh, you _can_ feel them already.”

“What are you?” He tried to keep a steady voice, but it came out almost fearful.

“Don’t you know? Your own people gave you to me,” Lance replied, though this time, it came out almost playfully.

“But _you_ picked _me_.” Keith wanted to know why. He wanted to know what Lance was. He wanted to know why _he_ was chosen.

Lance leaned in close to Keith’s ear. “I waited _so_ long for _you_. Of course I was going to pick you.”

“20 years can’t be that long. You probably just got rid of your last toy.”

“My last toy?” Lance tilted his head back so they were looking at one another.

“The last person you took.” It had been a 22-year-old woman named Florona. He wondered what Lance had done to her.

The demon still looked confused until realization settled in and he snorted. “That’s your theory? That I pick a new fuck buddy, and then use them for 20 years before getting another one? Why? Cause they get old or something?” He leaned in closer again so their noses were brushing. “It’s not how things work.”

“Huh?”

Lance let go of Keith’s wrists, propping him up under his thighs instead. “No one here dies. We don’t age. Illness isn’t a thing, and we don’t wear away.” He hesitated. “We can be killed though. Accidents, or on purpose. Our physical bodies can die. The soul though, that’s something else altogether. Mortals I bring here have the same benefits, but if they die, their soul moves on. Not us though.” Her stared directly into his eyes. “We may be different when we do, but we keep coming back.”

“So where are they?” Keith felt his stomach twist. “And I’m not like you. I’m just another person you picked in a streak of—of prisoners.”

“You think that, huh?” Lance backed away a bit, setting him down on his feet again. “Is that how you’d like me to treat you? Would it make you feel better? If that’s really how you want things to go, I can lock you up, tie you down, and have my way with you.” He chuckled a bit. “You were always into weird things like that.”

No, Keith absolutely did _not_ want that. Yet, he didn’t recoil away at all. Oddly enough, that wasn’t what his mind latched onto.

“What are you talking about?” What did Lance mean by that? Keith wasn’t into _anything_. He had never let anyone close enough to experiment with.

The demon said nothing as he turned to leave, but something about his grin made Keith’s heart leap and his stomach twist.

  
And _not_ in a good way.

…

_“You need to stay away from him, you understand?” Keith looked up at a tall, looming figure with white hair and skin that was so sickly pale that it almost looked purple, like the circulation in him wasn’t quite right._

_“I can do whatever I want,” he snapped back. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw a wing with an array of feathers that were ruby, scarlet, crimson, tangerine, butterscotch, gold, and warm yellow amongst many other shades._

_“If he steals you and binds your soul to his, you’ll never be free. Never be able to do what you want again. You understand that, don’t you?”_

Keith opened his eyes, confusion rushing through him, not understanding what he just saw, but it felt so, _so_ familiar.

He looked behind him towards Lance, who shifted slightly, looking incredibly peaceful.

…

“I’ve got something to show you.”

Keith looked up from the book he was reading, a creepy horror novel that he happened to find in the massive library. He’d never really been interested in those books, but this one was about a demon that kidnapped people. It was nothing at all like his current situation, which actually made him wonder what was going on with his situation.

Lance stood over him, a wide grin on his face, holding a hand out. He looked like he was almost vibrating on the spot.

He raised an eyebrow skeptically, but knew that Lance was nothing if not persistent. He dog-eared the page of the book, and allowed Lance to help him up. He went to move away from him, but Lance kept a firm, but not painful, grip on his hand.

They walked through the halls, and for the first time, Keith noticed something different. The halls didn’t seem quite as eerie, but at first, he couldn’t pick out what it was, but then he realized that it was the sound of _people_.

Keith came to an abrupt stop and stared with wide eyes. “There are more people here?”

“There are _always_ more people here,” Lance assured him. “I told you before, we’re not alone here. I wasn’t just going to throw away everyone that was offered up.”

“Why haven’t I seen them?”

Lance let go of Keith’s hand, and the sound instantly stopped, a heavy feeling weighing down on his chest. The demon then grabbed his hand, and it came back.

“What the hell?” Alarm rushed through him. He jerked his hand out of Lance’s, and took a few steps away from him. There were other people there, he wasn’t alone, but he could only hear or see them when he wasn’t just _with_ Lance, but touching him.

“Keith…”

“Don’t touch me!” Keith recoiled from him, his heart pounding furiously in his chest. Lance took a step towards him, and Keith turned around and _ran_. There was no where he _could_ go that was out of Lance’s grip here. He didn’t even have a bedroom of his own, forced to share a bed with Lance, forced into that kind of close intimacy. Forced to depend on him.

That didn’t stop him from slamming the bedroom door, and then rushing into the bathroom, locking that behind him as well.

He slumped against the door, back sliding down until he was sitting on the ground. He pulled his knees up to his chest, pressing his forehead against them, and tugging at his hair with his hands.

He wanted to go home.

…

It was a bad day. A very, very bad day. The morning was normal enough, waking up with Lance’s arms around him, even if he didn’t want them there. He had shoved him away, protested at first, scooting over to the other side of the bed.

Keith didn’t bother now. He just let Lance do whatever he wanted.

In fact, he didn’t want to do anything. He didn’t even want to wake up. What was the point? Time meant nothing, there were no clocks or calendars for him to keep track of, well, _anything_. Not that he _did_ anything. He didn’t really have a purpose there, did he?

Lance sat up, yawning dramatically. He then flopped back down, nuzzling his face against the back of Keith’s neck, and settling against the scarred bite mark that had been there since before Keith was given to Lance.

Before he was even officially _chosen_ as the Sacrifice. Maybe he _had_ been chosen the day he was born. Maybe it was why his dad had died. Maybe it was why his mother had left. He was supposed to be alone so that no one would miss him.

Then there was Shiro, who refused to accept that.  God, Keith missed Shiro so, so much.

“Keith?” Lance twisted him over a bit so that they were staring at one another. He frowned, running a hand over Keith’s cheek. “What’s wrong?”

“Nothing,” he answered. Normally, Keith would squirm out of his grip to get ready for the day, but he didn’t bother.

Lance frowned, but simply pecked Keith’s cheek, and then sat up again, getting out of bed. “Well, you sleep in for a bit, okay? There’s something that I’d like to show you later.” Probably what he was going to show him the other day.

Keith didn’t really move, despite the fact that, the longer he laid there and thought, the more his head pounded. There really was no point to getting up though, was there? There was nothing he could do. He was helpless there. He didn’t want to live like this.

That thought gave him pause. Lance once told him that they didn’t die there, but they _could_ be killed. He didn’t stand a chance in a fight against a _demon_ , but maybe…just maybe…

Keith got out of bed and looked towards the bag that he had brought with him. It almost felt like he was moving in slow motion was he opened it up. The ornate blade that was the only thing he had left of his mother was easy to find and bring out.

He pulled it out of the plain, black sheath that it was in, staring at the smooth, polished surface of the sharp weapon.

His eyes turned back to the table, where a couple pictures slid out of the bag along with the knife. The only three ones that had ever mattered to him. There was one of him as a baby with both of his parents, the only picture of his mother that seemed to exist. There was one of him as a young boy with his father. There was one of him as a teenager with Shiro and Adam.

Something dark and cold settled in. He moved back to the bed and held the knife to his wrist.

…

When Keith awoke again, he was in a different room. Confusion hit him, and he tried to sit up, but found that he couldn’t move. His wrists were carefully bandaged, but above that on his forearms, there were shackles that were tightly bound to the side of the bed.

If he weren’t so lethargic, he probably would have panicked. “Huh?”

“You tried to kill yourself.”

He blinked and looked around to where Lance was sitting at the side of the bed, arms crossed, looking down at the floor. Slowly, his memories came back, and he inhaled sharply. “You saved me.”

“I did,” Lance agreed. His shoulders tensed.

He moved his arms a bit. “Are you going to let me go?”

“Not until you swear to never do it again.”

Keith pursed his lips and said nothing. He couldn’t promise that. How could he? It wasn’t like anything had changed. It wasn’t like he had suddenly found a purpose in life.

 “ _Never_ do that again. Do you understand me?” Lance said more forcefully, looking up at him.

Keith recoiled slightly, staring at Lance’s glowing blue eyes, the normal circular irises turned into thin slits.

They stared at one another, Keith suddenly very aware that he couldn’t move. He let his lips, and then felt the compulsion to be completely honest. What did it matter? “Does it matter? Why am I even here? I don’t do anything. I just…exist. I have nothing to do. No reason to do anything!”

Lance’s face softened, the glow of his eyes vanishing, though his pupils were still more oblong than normal. “Sweetheart, no. I need you. More than you can really understand. Do you understand that?” He reached out, undoing the shackles on one side, which seemed to prompt the other side to open automatically. He took Keith’s land into both of his gently. “Do you know what I’d do if you died? I need you, Keith. You do have a purpose. You’re here because I need you. I would be lost without you. Please, think of me if you feel lost.” He brought the hand up and kissed it gently.

“I miss Shiro,” Keith muttered to him. “I miss home.”

“You are home,” Lance assured him sweetly. “This is where you belong. Think about it, you never felt like you fit in there, did you? Yes, two people were there for you, but the rest? Haven’t you always felt like something was missing? Or not right?”

Keith blinked. That was definitely true. He looked down at their hands again and looked back up at Lance, who was staring at him like he was the single most important thing in the universe.

No one had ever looked at him that way before. No one had ever showered him with the type of attention that Lance did. And Lance was all alone too, wasn’t he?

Something about his mind protested that idea. But he shrugged that off. If there were other people here, he would have seen them. He had been about to leave Lance, who was so kind to him, alone, hadn’t he?

How selfish could he be?

“I’m sorry,” Keith muttered, shame washing over him. “I’m sorry.”

Lance pressed his lips to his forehead. “As long as you never do it again.”

Keith nodded his head in agreement.

…

There’s a night pressed against Keith’s neck, his own knife that glittered in the moonlight. A tail with sharp, azure scales wraps around him as he feels breath on his ear.

“You got by the guard they put there,” he whispered, not daring to raise his voice.

Icy breath rushed across his neck as a light chuckle reached him. “I did. I told you. I told _him_.” He nuzzled him. “Nothing was going to keep me away from you.”

Keith hummed at that. “What if I want to stay here?”

“I’ll show you why you’re wrong.”

He didn’t protest as he was moved along, ushered towards the wide balcony before them. He didn’t stop or hesitate, though it didn’t fear the knife at his throat. He paid no attention to the screaming and fighting in the distance.

He paid no attention to the mutilated corpse of his guard by the door.

…

One good thing about the always changing mansion was that Keith could never truly discover all aspects of it. It seemed like _some_ things stayed the same for his benefit, but such a large place meant that Keith could walk around. He always felt better when he wasn’t idle.

That day, he came across something new that caught his interest. It was a large set of double doors that he had never seen before. He stared for a moment before grabbing one of the doors and opening it, grimacing slightly at the loud creek. That was odd. Nothing else did that.

He peered out the door, and froze.

This wasn’t just _any_ door. This was the _front_ door. Keith didn’t even remember how long he had been in this mansion, but he had never once found an exit like this, though he had found several outdoor areas that were still walled in.

Keith looked over his shoulder before stepping outside, leaving the door open behind him. He looked around, blinking at the forest that he had seen outside the windows so many times.

He used to love hiking and camping, but he didn’t even know how long that he had been in this place for.

Walking forward, Keith stared down at the ground, realizing that he hadn’t even put on shoes that day. When was the last time he _had_ worn shoes anyway? He always had them on when he got there.

It wasn’t that Keith intended on running away or going far, or anything like that. He was just amazed to be able to go outside in a spot where he wasn’t entirely trapped.

He froze when a strange sound reached his ears. Keith frowned, concentrating on the noise. Slowly, he blinked his eyes when a sweet, magical sound coming from the woods.

He had grown up in a highly superstitious community. Keith knew better than to follow music into the woods. It never ended well for any character that he had ever heard of. Despite this though, Keith found himself moving closer and closer to the forest, his feet leaving the brock walkway, crossing over the soft, cool grass, before trudging over the rugged ground.

He wasn’t in the woods very far when he caught sight of a strange little creature with circled horns and mostly yellow skin.

He had never seen anything quite like it before. It was just a little thing, but Keith was instantly tensed.

“Hello,” it said to him. “I am Klaizap.”

Keith stared at it unsurely, not saying anything. It didn’t _look_ dangerous, but he certainly could be.

“I, the mightiest of the Arusian warriors,” Klaizap informed him. “Come, light bringer.  I need you to follow me.”

Why the ever living _fuck_ would Keith follow whatever this thing was? He moved to step back, but for some reason, his feet moved forward, and he began to feel almost light-headed. With every step towards him, the creature seemed to morph, horns becoming sharp, mouth growing wider with razor-like teeth.

“Keith!”

He snapped out of it at the yell of his name. At the same time the creature in front of him lunged, something grabbed him by the back of his shirt and _threw_ him back. He skidded across the ground, and looked up with wide eyes to see this _massive_ creature. He had never seen anything quite like it before, and could barely comprehend _what_ it actually was. Its form couldn’t even seem to decide, shifting slightly as it moved, fluid like water.

It reared back over the smaller, grotesque little creature, and Keith closed his eyes. He heard a frightening sound like a pig being slaughtered, with a sickening gushing and crunching sound. When everything went silent, he opened his eyes again. The big creature was still there, the ground stained with blood.

Slowly, Keith stood up. The path back to the mansion meant that he’d have to go around this _thing_. It wasn’t looking at him yet, so he quickly made it’s move.

At the same time, the monster moved its giant wings, the razor-sharp edge colliding with his face. Keith fell back to the ground, pain searing through him, and he was sure that this monster was going to devour him next.

“Keith!”

He blinked his eyes open, wetness from pain distorting his vision as he stared up, seeing glowing blue eyes hovering above him, before everything went dark.

…

This time around, Keith very much remembered what happened when he woke up. There was no moment of confusion, wondering where he was and what he was doing. He jerked up, looking around wildly, as if expecting to see a monster in the corner of the room.

“Hey, hey, calm down.” Warm, steady hands were put on his shoulders, grounding him out of his panic. He looked up, meeting Lance’s eyes. The first thing he noticed was that there were thick bandages wrapped around his arm.

 “What happened?” Keith touched the bandages.

“Those little things are dangerous. It got me too. They always come when someone new is here. It’s why it’s not safe outside yet. They’ll go eventually.”

Keith nodded his head slowly, blinking as memories clashed in his mind. He frowned. “There was another monster there. It was bigger. It had wings.” He reached up, running a hand over his cheek. It didn’t hurt though.

“No. I pulled you back a little too hard, and managed to get rid of that thing.” Lance tilted his head slightly. “I did end up tossing you a bit hard though. I’m sorry about that.”

“But I thought…my face…”

“You mean your scar?” Lance asked, eyes flashing with anger. “Don’t you remember? The people that gave you to me did that.” He carefully ran his finger of Keith’s cheek.

That didn’t sound quite right. Keith could remember being shackled and lowered into the cavern but…wait.

“Right,” he muttered. That _was_ right. Wasn’t it. They cut Keith’s cheek, a large, painful make left behind to ‘entice the demon’. Lance would never let something like that happen to him if he could help it.

“I would never hurt you,” Lance confirmed, leaning forward and leaning his forehead against Keith’s.

“Thank you for saving me,” Keith replied, allowing Lance to take his hands into his own. “I’m sorry this happened.” One hand slid up Lance’s arm again to the bandages. “I’ll make it up to you somehow.”

Lance smiled at him brilliantly. “Just don’t go outside without me for now on, okay? That’s thanks enough for me.” His smile turned into a flirtatious grin. “For now at least.”

Keith shook his head, warm amusement welling up within him.

…

“There’s something I need to show you.”

When Lance had flounced over to him that morning, Keith had to admit that he was a little curious. Lately, Lance had taken to actually showing him around to specific rooms that he had never seen before, gloating about each and every one and why he loved being there.

His eyes widened when he saw what looked like a giant, perfectly round pool of water.

“What’s this?” Keith asked, looking down at the edge of it. The liquid looked almost silvery, the surface incredibly reflective like a mirror. It definitely wasn’t a pool. Lance took great joy going to the pools and hot tubs with him.  

“It’s like a portal of sorts that allows us to see brief glimpses of the other world.” Lance frowned. “It can only be used every once and a while.”

“Did you use it to check in on me?” Keith asked curiously. Lance had said time and time again that he had been waiting for Keith, and that he knew when he was born.

Lance wrapped his arms around Keith’s waist, resting his chin on his shoulder from behind so that they were both staring at the pool. “No. I felt you, but I didn’t. That would be kind of creepy, to watch someone grow up that way, you know.” He nuzzled him. “No. The first time I saw you was when I came to your dreams and gave you this.” His hand slid up, fingers brushing against the stone on Keith’s necklace.

“So what’s this for then?” Keith leaned against him and looked over his shoulder to see him.

“So you can see that Shiro’s okay.”

His eyes went wide, and he looked back at him. “I can?”

“Yup. Just look down and concentrate on Shiro.” Lance chuckled. “Hopefully we don’t see anything inappropriate.”

Keith snorted and leaned towards the water a little more, picturing Shiro’s familiar features. The water rippled in front of them, colours shimmering and twisting before him.

He swallowed the lump that appeared in his throat when he saw Shiro for the first time in he wasn’t sure how long. His brother was sitting in a new living room that Keith didn’t recognize, and he realized that Shiro and Adam probably took his advice to get away from that hell forsaken town. They were smiling and laughing with one another over a mostly burnt meal. Probably Shiro’s doing.

“He’s happy,” Keith noted.

Lance hugged him a little more tightly. “You sound sad about that.”

Keith was genuinely glad that Shiro had done what he had asked, that he wasn’t just going to wallow. At the same time though, it did hurt for it to look like Keith never had an impact on his life at all. “No. I’m glad he’s happy. I am. I just thought…maybe…”

“He’d miss you more?” Lance suggested.

Keith nodded his head. “Yeah.”

“He does though,” Lane assured him. “How could he not? You’re not at all forgettable. I would know.” He nuzzled his nose into Keith’s neck. “This is wht you wanted, right?”

“Yes,” Keith admitted, because it was. He wanted Shiro to smile, be happy, and move on with his life. He genuinely did. “Yes this is what I wanted. I’ve only ever wanted him to be happy.” He stared at the image, a smile slowly spreading across his lips. Shiro was happy, that mean he didn’t have to worry about him. He didn’t have to cling to the fear that Shiro would do something stupid. He could just let go.

“Thank you,” Keith muttered as he turned around to face Lance.

He smiled at him, taking both of Keith’s hands into his and bringing them up to his lips, pressing a kiss against them. “Anything for you.”

Keith smiled, something warm rising up within him.

He couldn’t remember why he had ever been scared or wary of Lance before.

If he had turned around, he would have noticed the Shiro in the reflection suddenly frowning and looking down at his hands before the pool turned back into a solid silver.

…

 “I’m not so sure this is a good idea.”

Lance’s glowing blue eyes looked up at him as he leaned in closer. “They’re trying to keep us apart. How could this be a bad idea? A soul bond is so powerful. They’d never be able to separate us ever again, not even in death.”

Keith hummed a bit. That did sound very, very tempting.

“So what if you’re fire and light and day, and I’m ice and darkness and night?” Lance cut in, going directly for the thoughts plaguing Keith. He took his hands into his own, bringing them up to his lips to press a gentle kiss against them. “Don’t worry, everything will be fine. I promise.” He smiled. “I’m never going to hurt you.”

“Okay.”

…

Keith’s breath swirled around him, warm puffs meeting the chilled air on that dark night. He stood in the court yard, arms crossed in front of him to generate warmth. He loved being outside, but he also wasn’t a very big fan of the cold. “Lance, what are we doing out here?”

The other man smiled at him playfully. “Close your eyes.”

Keith raised an eyebrow.

“Come on, don’t you trust me?” Lance whined.

With a roll of his eyes, Keith made a show of closing his eyes, earning a chuckle. He waited curiously, nearly opening his eyes when he felt something brushing against his cheek, but stopping himself. “Your wings.” They felt a little bit different from the last time that Keith ahd felt them. Less leathery, and more soft.

Lance hummed affirmatively, wrapping his arms around Keith. “Put your arms around my shoulders and hold on.”

“That’s one way to ask for a hug,” Keith replied, easily looping his arms over Lance’s shoulders. Lance tugged him closer, and Keith gasped as he suddenly found himself off of the ground. He clung to him tighter, the cold air whipping past his face, the loud thump of Lance’s wings echoing in his ears.

It ended quickly enough, and Keith was placed gently onto a solid surface.

“Okay, open your eyes.”

Keith blinked and looked around, realizing quickly that they were on the roof of the mansion. Somehow though, it seemed even more than that. There was a fresh layer of snow over everything, shimmering in the moonlight. The stars were beyond bright in the cloudless sky. He could clearly see the constellations of Aquila, Lyra, Hydra, Pegasus and so much more. It was breathtaking.

“Wow,” Keith whispered before turning around to Lance. No, forget the sceneary and constellations, _Lance_ was the truly breathtaking thing. Keith could very clearly see his wings behind him now. “Your wings. I thought…” He thought that they were almost bat-like and bare, but these wings had the smallest little feathers spanning every shade of blue, green and purple.

“They’ll get longer as long as you’re with me. I lost them when I lost you last time. I almost lost myself.” He placed his hands on Keith’s hips. “But I found you, and I won’t let anyone hurt you ever again.”

Keith smiled at him, carefully reaching forward to brush his finger against the wing, causing Lance to shudder. “They’re beautiful.”

“Not as beautiful as yours will be when they come back.”

He stared at him with confusion before becoming aware of a slight ache on his back. That was right. He had always known they’d come back as soon as he found Lance again. The process was painful, but it’d be worth it to be himself again. Just like Lance wanted him to be.

“I’m sorry you had to lose your feathers,” Keith said to him. “I won’t do anything reckless again.”

“Good,” he all but purred, blue eyes glowing. “Being together is the only thing that matters.” He leaned down, pressing his lips against Keith’s. In turn, Keith hummed as warmth rushed through him, closing his eyes and tilting his head to be as close to Lance as possible. This was where he was supposed to be.

…

Movement beside him, and not an alarm, was what roused Keith from his sleep. His eyes fluttered slightly, opening to the expanse of a bare chest that he was nestled against. He felt warm, he felt content.

Keith caught movement in his peripheral, a soft thump scarring the content, quiet atmosphere. He looked over, realizing that it was just his wings, the morning sunlight bouncing off of the reds, yellows and oranges.

He got up to see what he had accidentally knocked off of the nightstand that he never used. Confusion rushed through him at the sight of the bag on the floor. Where had that come from?

He reached down, picking up the bag and setting it on the bed. There was a open sketchbook poking out, so he lifted it to look at it curiously, sure that this wasn’t Lance’s.

He stared at the drawing of a man with confusion, eyes trailing over hair that was shaded, outside of a white floof at the front. What an odd feature to have.

“What’s wrong?” Lance asked with a yawn.

“What’s this?” Keith asked, showing him the book.

“Ah, that.” Lance flopped back, crossing his arms behind his head. “That was when you were making your own story, remember? He was one of your characters. I think his name was Shiran or something.”

Shiran. No, that wasn’t quite right. Keith couldn’t remember exactly when he had created this, but it sounded like something he’d do. “Weird name.”

Lance pushed himself back up and reached out with one of his feathery wings to guide him back into the bed, scooting so their sides were pressed against one another. “You always get fantastic ideas in your head. Let’s put this away somewhere where it won’t be ruined.” He gently brushed his hand against the collar around his neck.

“I feel like I know this person,” Keith muttered, staring at it. That wasn’t right. He knew that there were others in their home, but this man didn’t look like any of them that he had met before.

“Of course you do, you created him.” Lance pressed a kiss against the side of his head. Taking the book from him. “Always such a dreamer.” He stood up, moving around the room and grabbing the bag as well, quickly discarding them. “Old things you wanted to get rid of but never do, Keith.”

“Sorry, sorry.” He wasn’t always a packrat, but sometimes things just got left behind. Still, a part of him wanted to go back and look at that book again.

Lance climbed back onto the bed, flopping half of top of Keith. “I feel like I should be jealous. You thinking of another man that way.”

Keith chuckled. “Don’t be ridiculous. You know I don’t need anyone else but you.”

Lance leaned in close, voice dropping to a whisper. His teasing grin glinted with his sharp teeth, eyes glowing a vibrant blue. That scaly tail slid down Keith’s side. “You may have to convince me.”

Rising to the challenge, Keith leaned up and kissed Lance, allowing him to completely push him back down into the pillows.

For whatever reason, the word ‘sacrifice’ was bouncing around in his head, along with the word ‘captive’, but that didn’t make any kind of sense at all. He loved Lance. He wanted to be here with him. This was where he belonged.

That’s what Lance told him, at least, and surely if Lance said it, it was without a doubt, the truth.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> If you're uncomfortable with Lance and Keith's relationship in this, good. You SHOULD be. It's supposed to be super unsettling. 
> 
> That's what I was playing around in all aspects of it. Though it's entirely Keith's POV, I played with the idea of an unreliable narrators. We know where there are contradictions and lies. Things that don't make sense or just aren't right (for instance, I described Keith and Lance outside in a cold time that was obviously winter, but the only constellations Keith could see are seasonal ones that don't appear in winter). Also, switching tenses at times to make things feel weird. 
> 
> That's what I'm going for here. Unsettling and weird.

**Author's Note:**

> Click here to see my rules for [Bad Things Happen Bingo](https://storiesbeyondthestars.tumblr.com/post/177253571758/here-is-your-card-for-bad-things-happen-bingo).


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